Trays for cooking bacon in a microwave oven typically consist of a plastic tray having a slightly angled surface onto which strips of bacon are placed. The angled surface includes a series of grooves allowing the grease to flow from the bacon during cooking and collect in a reservoir adjacent to and below the angled surface. A draw back with this design is that the strips of bacon have a tendency to stick to the angled surface while cooking. As a result, the strips of bacon are unable to shrink in length while cooking and become very thin and brittle. Consequently, the long thin brittle strips of bacon are difficult to remove from the tray without breaking.
The present invention provides a cooking rack including a series of support members moveably coupled together for supporting a food product, the support members capable of moving relative to each other during cooking to accommodate shrinkage of the food product.
In preferred embodiments, the support members are moveably secured to each other by a flexible connecting member, and in some cases, a pair of flexible connecting members. In one embodiment, the support members are secured to flexible sheet material having two weakened lines which allow a central region of the sheet material to be removed. In another embodiment, the support members are separated from each other by sheet material having a series of holes therethrough. In still another embodiment, the support members are movably contained by a containing member. The containing member includes opposed side members where the support members are movably contained by elongate slots formed within the side members. The containing member may be a tray with the side members forming opposed walls of the tray. The support members may be coated with microwave susceptor material.